Learning Humility From Rabbi Zvi Ryzman

On March 17, the doctors at Miami University Hospital told me that the coronavirus had gotten into my lungs and that they would have to sedate me. At the time, I hadn’t yet heard of anyone who had suffered from the disease as I had. Other people I knew who had contracted the disease were mildly sick. I thought that there was no chance that this could happen to me. I was so careful, and I was doing good things for Am Yisrael in raising money for United Hatzalah, a volunteer Emergency Medical Service organization that I founded. My whole life has been dedicated to saving others, so how could this happen to me?

In the last video I sent to everyone from my hospital bed, I begged people to pray for me and to do good deeds as a merit for my recovery. The doctors then put me into an induced coma. I recall them putting an injection in my arm and coming with the blade of the intubation tube to intubate me.

That is the last thing I remember.

Nearly 30 days later, I woke up, and the world had changed. It wasn’t the same world that I knew before. When I walked into the hospital, everything in the world was normal, open and functioning. When I woke up, everything was shut down.

It took me two days to come back to myself. I couldn’t even open my phone. The only communication I had was a few phone calls with my wife and children through the hospital phone, and I was too weak to talk. I had tubes everywhere, and I wasn’t able to walk or even talk. I had lost 36 pounds of muscle and body weight.

One of the things that hit me hardest was when I saw a notice that a close friend of mine and one of the greatest people I know, Rabbi Zvi Ryzman, was also in serious condition at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. Rabbi Ryzman is a humble man, successful businessman and one of the greatest Torah scholars that I have had the pleasure of knowing. He was a big supporter of so many great organizations, including United Hatzalah. I used to talk to him quite often, and I was very close to him. He was a very strong man physically, and I never heard of him suffering from anything. That is when it hit me — other people were suffering from what I suffered from, too.

I called up one of Rabbi Ryzman’s sons, and he told me that most of the family was sick with COVID-19, but most weren’t in critical condition. At one point, the doctors in Los Angeles almost gave up on Ryzman, until the President of the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, Professor Jonathan Halevy, called up Rabbi Ryzman’s wife and doctors and provided medical advice. Upon hearing this, I decided that I needed to pray for him.

I started praying for him multiple times per day. I knew that he was praying for me when I got sick, so it was the least I could do to return the favor.

Two weeks later, to my great relief, he woke up. I knew about the difficulty of the recuperation process firsthand and was so thrilled when he got better. I know that Hashem can’t give up on people like him, even though he faced tremendous challenges in this disease and recovery process.

Sometime later, he called me up to thank me for praying for him. I was so humbled and replied that I was just one of many thousands of people who were praying for him. He told me that he was calling everyone who prayed for him.

A few weeks ago, I was in Los Angeles, and I called Rabbi Ryzman to tell him that I was in town. He invited me for Shabbat, and we spent a few hours talking about our stories and our similar experiences. We also talked about how we can help Am Yisrael, now that we both survived. I told him that I want to save more lives. He told me that he wants to write more books on Jewish thought (sefarim) and help more organizations.

I am honored that people like Rabbi Zvi and his wife Betty are my friends and support the lifesaving mission I have undertaken with United Hatzalah. When we were able to take a photo on Saturday night after Shabbat was over, I reflected on just how many miracles occurred in making the picture, just how much each of us had to go through in order to be standing next to each other. I am going to hang the photo up in my office and keep it with me always.

Rabbi Ryzman and I survived some of the hardest experiences that this disease could throw at us. And in so doing, I learned what it means to be successful in achieving your goals and in maintaining a level of humility that can allow you to be approachable by anyone. I am so thankful that God chose to spare both of us so that we may each return to our respective missions with renewed vigor and continue to help the people of Israel.

Thank you, Rabbi Zvi Ryzman.

Eli Beer is the President of United Hatzalah in Israel, the volunteer paramedic organization.